You have to know the difference

There is a huge difference between revenue and income respectively expenses and costs. It makes me a bit angry to hear a Scandinavian finance minister say that the large age groups with mainly people of the nineteen forties who have retired are a big expense for the state and the municipality. 

She should have labeled them as a cost. Everyone with a little ability to think logically understands that sooner or later a person will switch from generating revenues to expenses. In order to balance these items, revenues and expenses should be recorded over the same time period. If you do, it becomes very clear that this age group has been a much larger source of revenues than expenses.

On the contrary, we should be grateful for their great contribution to society.